Automatic cloud capacity adjustment

ABSTRACT

Allocation of resources utilized by a contact center remains a balancing act between the burden of having resources that are generally underutilized and underperforming due to resource constraints. Many contact centers support a variety of communication types (e.g., audio-video, audio, text, email, etc.) associated with a respective communication channel. Communications may be dynamically incentivized or allocated from one communication channel having greater resource demands to another communication channel having lesser resource demands. Additionally, the resources of the contact center may be shared by customers of clients utilizing the contact center. As a result, one customer having a spike in demand may have their, and/or another customer&#39;s, communications reallocated to the less demanding channel to manage contact center resource utilization.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure is generally directed toward multi-tenancyutilization of data processing and communication resources.

BACKGROUND

Cloud computing typically involves deploying remote servers and makingsoftware and services available to remote servers and end-users using acentralized data storage model. The cloud computing model is designed tocut costs by allowing companies to focus on the key aspects of abusiness rather than Information Technology (IT) concerns.

Quality of service is one critical aspect of cloud computing sinceresources are not provided locally. In cloud computing, service providercompanies may provide resources and services to one or more othercompanies. Providing superior quality of service at reasonable prices tocompanies who have different and varying CPU, multi-media (video, voice,text, email, etc.), and other data needs can be challenging.

SUMMARY

It is with respect to the above issues and other problems that theembodiments presented herein were contemplated. Embodiments herein aregenerally directed toward providing proactive capacity adjustment basedon expected and real demand, as well as offering automated solutions andadjustments prior to, during, and after events.

Capacity adjustment may be based on demand, as well as offeringautomated solutions and adjustments prior to, during, and after events.Resource pooling and rapid elasticity are adjustable elements that maybe utilized.

In resource pooling the service provider's computing resources arepooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, withdifferent physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned andreassigned according to consumer demand.

Rapid elasticity provides for the rapid provisioning and releasing ofcapabilities, which may be performed automatically, to scale rapidlyoutward and inward commensurate with demand. As a benefit, thecapabilities available for provisioning often appear unlimited to theconsumer, which can be appropriated in any quantity at any time.

Resource pooling and/or rapid elasticity can be changed as usagechanges, and incentives and discounts can be offered for dropping orshifting load. One problem is that despite a customer's knowledge of theevents that trigger an increase in capacity, prior art models continueto be reactive.

In one embodiment, a multi-tenancy capacity module is provided toautomatically and dynamically determine events and intervals in whichcapacity might be compromised. Bandwidth can then be adjusted up or downusing a change in mix (e.g., use only voice and not video for a timeinterval), replacing click-to-connect with click-to-callback for aninterval, and reduction/deferral to the future before hitting athreshold or other demarcation point.

Service level agreements (SLAs) can be set to provide voice-only toreserve capacity or provide other mechanisms, which may make thedistribution seem random across all customers. For hosted solutions, allcustomers and intervals could be monitored to provide patterns.

One benefit which may be realized by implementing certain embodimentsprovided herein is a reduction in the cloud computing cost/resourcesrequired to service pending or predicted events. This differs from thereducing of agent time or requesting enough agents to handle asituation. In one embodiment, adjustments are made to provide tradeoffswith and between communication methods and the resource requirements. Inone example, communications to SMS/chat would be favored during a spikein utilization, thus allowing maximum engagement volume with minimalcomputing, network, and bandwidth costs. As demand subsides, email,voice, and multimedia communications may be resumed in one or moresteps.

In another embodiment, resources may be added to a static or dynamicthreshold level (elasticity) and the additional control of communicationservices modes is provided as one means to balance increasedcomputing/network capacity with alternate service options.

One benefit of implementing embodiments described herein improve withthe state of the art that allows contact centers to more readily movecalls between channels, add/remove modes of communication, and performother call handing operations. For example, every time it snows morethan six inches in Chicago, one airline's resource usage goes up 63%.The multi-tenancy capacity module alerts a second and third airline (whohave no weather alerts) that for six hours, they will be offering onlyvoice-based assistance (or be charged additional fees for videoaccording to the existing SLAs), and 25% of the work requests will beoffered call-back assistance. After the interval, services areautomatically restored to offering multi-channel capabilities withoutrestriction.

Additionally, the usage data may be provided to workforce prediction,analytics, and other processes to allow proactive option managementbefore the resource capacity is increased or decreased. As a benefit,the multi-tenancy capacity module can provide smarter and more efficientcapacity planning for the whole hosted solution, rather than just askingfor predictions and creating reserves.

In one embodiment, a system is disclosed, comprising: a set of resourcesutilized in providing a service to a customer of the contact centerduring electronic communications between the customers and agents of thecontact center and the set of resources having a monitored resource; afirst communications channel utilizing a first subset of the resourcescomprising at least the monitored resource; a second communicationchannel utilizing a second subset of the resources; a resource managerconfigured to monitor utilization of the monitored resource and upondetermining the utilization of the monitored resource has reached apreviously determined threshold, incentivize a portion of the electroniccommunications to utilize the second communications channel.

In another embodiment, a method is disclosed, comprising: monitoringutilization of a monitored resource of a set of resources of a contactcenter, the monitored resource being one resource of a set of resourcesutilized in providing a service to customers of the contact centerduring electronic communications between the customers and agents of thecontact center; determining the monitored resource is overutilized; inresponse to the determination, incentivizing a portion of the electroniccommunications to utilize a second communications channel having alesser demand on the monitored resource than a first communicationchannel.

In another embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable medium withinstructions thereon is disclosed that when read by the computer causethe computer to perform: monitoring utilization of a monitored resourceof a set of resources of a contact center, the monitored resource beingone resource of a set of resources utilized in providing a service tocustomers of the contact center during electronic communications betweenthe customers and agents of the contact center; determining themonitored resource is overutilized; in response to the determination,incentivizing a portion of the electronic communications to utilize asecond communications channel having a lesser demand on the monitoredresource than a first communication channel.

The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” and “and/or” are open-endedexpressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. Forexample, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C,” “at leastone of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” “one or more of A, B,or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. Assuch, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can beused interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising,” “including,” and “having” can be used interchangeably.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation done without material human input when theprocess or operation is performed. However, a process or operation canbe automatic, even though performance of the process or operation usesmaterial or immaterial human input, if the input is received beforeperformance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to bematerial if such input influences how the process or operation will beperformed. Human input that consents to the performance of the processor operation is not deemed to be “material.”

The term “computer-readable medium,” as used herein, refers to anytangible storage that participates in providing instructions to aprocessor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including,but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmissionmedia. Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic oroptical disks. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as mainmemory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, afloppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any othermagnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other opticalmedium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patternsof holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid-state mediumlike a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any othermedium from which a computer can read. When the computer-readable mediais configured as a database, it is to be understood that the databasemay be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical,object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, the disclosure isconsidered to include a tangible storage medium and prior art-recognizedequivalents and successor media, in which the software implementationsof the present disclosure are stored.

The terms “determine,” “calculate,” and “compute,” and variationsthereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any typeof methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The term “module,” as used herein, refers to any known orlater-developed hardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence,fuzzy logic, or combination of hardware and software that is capable ofperforming the functionality associated with that element. Also, whilethe disclosure is described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it shouldbe appreciated that other aspects of the disclosure can be separatelyclaimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIG. 1 depicts a communication system in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts a diagram in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts a first process in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 4 depicts a second process in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 5 depicts a third process in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts a fourth process in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure; and

FIG. 7 depicts a fifth process in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides embodiments only and is not intended tolimit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims. Rather,the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the art with anenabling description for implementing the embodiments. It will beunderstood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

Any reference in the description comprising an element number, without asubelement identifier when a subelement identifier exists in thefigures, when used in the plural, is intended to reference any two ormore elements with a like element number. When such a reference is madein the singular form, it is intended to reference one of the elementswith the like element number without limitation to a specific one of theelements. Any explicit usage herein to the contrary or providing furtherqualification or identification shall take precedence.

The exemplary systems and methods of this disclosure will also bedescribed in relation to analysis software, modules, and associatedanalysis hardware. However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presentdisclosure, the following description omits well-known structures,components, and devices that may be shown in block diagram form, and arewell known, or are otherwise summarized.

For purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It should beappreciated, however, that the present disclosure may be practiced in avariety of ways beyond the specific details set forth herein.

With reference now to FIG. 1, communication system 100 is discussed inaccordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure. Thecommunication system 100 may be a distributed system and, in someembodiments, comprises a communication network 104 connecting one ormore communication devices 108 to a work assignment mechanism 116, whichmay be owned and operated by an enterprise administering contact center102 in which a plurality of customer processing resources 112 aredistributed to handle incoming work items (in the form of contacts) fromcustomer communication devices 108.

Contact center 102 is variously embodied to receive and/or send messagesthat are or are associated with work items and the processing andmanagement (e.g., scheduling, assigning, routing, generating,accounting, receiving, monitoring, reviewing, etc.) of the work items byone or more customer processing resources 112. The work items aregenerally generated and/or received requests for a customer processingresource 112 embodied as, or a component of, an electronic and/orelectromagnetically conveyed message. Contact center 102 may includemore or fewer components than illustrated and/or provide more or fewerservices than illustrated. The border indicating contact center 102 maybe a physical boundary (e.g., a building, campus, etc.), legal boundary(e.g., company, enterprise, etc.), and/or logical (e.g., customerprocessing resources 112 utilized to provide services to customers for acustomer of contact center 102).

Furthermore, the border illustrating contact center 102 may beas-illustrated or, in other embodiments, include alterations and/or moreand/or fewer components than illustrated. For example, in otherembodiments, one or more of customer processing resources 112, customerdatabase 118, and/or other component may connect to routing engine 132via communication network 112, such as when such components connect viaa public network (e.g., Internet). In another embodiment, communicationnetwork 104 may be a private utilization of, at least in part, a publicnetwork (e.g., VPN); a private network located, at least partially,within contact center 102; or a mixture of private and public networksthat may be utilized to provide electronic communication of componentsdescribed herein. Additionally, it should be appreciated that componentsillustrated as external, such as social media server 130 and/or otherexternal data sources 134 may be within contact center 102 physicallyand/or logically, but still be considered external for other purposes.For example, contact center 102 may operate social media server 130(e.g., a website operable to receive user messages from customers and/orcustomer processing resources 112) as one means to interact withcustomers via their customer communication device 108.

Customer communication devices 108 are embodied as external to contactcenter 102 as they are under the more direct control of their respectiveuser or customer. However, embodiments may be provided whereby one ormore customer communication devices 108 are physically and/or logicallywithin contact center 102, such as when a customer utilizes customercommunication device 108 at a kiosk, attaches to a private network ofcontact center 102 (e.g., WiFi connection to a kiosk, etc.) within orcontrolled by contact center 102 and still be considered external tocontact center 102.

It should be appreciated that the description of contact center 102provides at least one embodiment whereby the following embodiments maybe more readily understood without limiting such embodiments. Contactcenter 102 may further be altered, added to, and/or subtracted fromwithout departing from the scope of any embodiment described herein andwithout limiting the scope of the embodiments or claims, except asexpressly provided.

Additionally, contact center 102 may incorporate and/or utilize socialmedia website 130 and/or other external data sources 134 may be utilizedto provide one means for a customer processing resource 112 to receiveand/or retrieve contacts and connect to a customer of a contact center102. Other external data sources 134 may include data sources, such asservice bureaus, third-party data providers (e.g., credit agencies,public and/or private records, etc.). Customers may utilize theirrespective customer communication device 108 to send/receivecommunications utilizing social media website 130.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication network 104 may comprise any type of knowncommunication medium or collection of communication media and may useany type of protocols to transport electronic messages betweenendpoints. The communication network 104 may include wired and/orwireless communication technologies. The Internet is an example of thecommunication network 104 that constitutes an Internet Protocol (IP)network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and othercommunication devices located all over the world, which are connectedthrough many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of thecommunication network 104 include, without limitation, a standard PlainOld Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) network, a Voice over IP (VoIP) network, a cellular network, andany other type of packet-switched or circuit-switched network known inthe art. In addition, it can be appreciated that the communicationnetwork 104 need not be limited to any one network type, and instead maybe comprised of a number of different networks and/or network types. Asone example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized toincrease the efficiency of a grid-based contact center 102. Examples ofa grid-based contact center 102 are more fully described in U.S. PatentPublication No. 2010/0296417 to Steiner, the entire contents of whichare hereby incorporated herein by reference. Moreover, the communicationnetwork 104 may comprise a number of different communication media, suchas coaxial cable, copper cable/wire, fiber-optic cable, antennas fortransmitting/receiving wireless messages, and combinations thereof

The communication devices 108 may correspond to customer communicationdevices. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a customer may utilize their communication device 108 toinitiate a work item. Illustrative work items include, but are notlimited to, a contact directed toward and received at a contact center102, a web page request directed toward and received at a server farm(e.g., collection of servers), a media request, an application request(e.g., a request for an application resources location on a remoteapplication server, such as a SIP application server), and the like. Thework item may be in the form of a message or collection of messagestransmitted over the communication network 104. For example, the workitem may be transmitted as a telephone call, a packet or collection ofpackets (e.g., IP packets transmitted over an IP network), an emailmessage, an Instant Message, an SMS message, a fax, and combinationsthereof. In some embodiments, the communication may not necessarily bedirected at the work assignment mechanism 116, but rather may be on someother server in the communication network 104 where it is harvested bythe work assignment mechanism 116, which generates a work item for theharvested communication, such as social media server 130. An example ofsuch a harvested communication includes a social media communicationthat is harvested by the work assignment mechanism 116 from a socialmedia network or server 130. Exemplary architectures for harvestingsocial media communications and generating work items based thereon aredescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/784,369, 12/706,942,and 12/707,277, filed Mar. 20, 1010, Feb. 17, 2010, and Feb. 17, 2010,respectively, each of which is hereby incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

The format of the work item may depend upon the capabilities of thecommunication device 108 and the format of the communication. Inparticular, work items are logical representations within a contactcenter 102 of work to be performed in connection with servicing acommunication received at contact center 102 (and, more specifically,the work assignment mechanism 116). The communication may be receivedand maintained at the work assignment mechanism 116, a switch or serverconnected to the work assignment mechanism 116, or the like, until acustomer processing resource 112 is assigned to the work itemrepresenting that communication at which point the work assignmentmechanism 116 passes the work item to a routing engine 132 to connectthe communication device 108, which initiated the communication with theassigned customer processing resource 112.

Although the routing engine 132 is depicted as being separate from thework assignment mechanism 116, the routing engine 132 may beincorporated into the work assignment mechanism 116 or its functionalitymay be executed by the work assignment engine 120.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication devices 108 may comprise any type of knowncommunication equipment or collection of communication equipment.Examples of a suitable communication device 108 include, but are notlimited to, a personal computer, laptop, Personal Digital Assistant(PDA), cellular phone, smart phone, telephone, or combinations thereof.In general, each communication device 108 may be adapted to supportvideo, audio, text, and/or data communications with other communicationdevices 108 as well as the processing customer processing resources 112.The type of medium used by the communication device 108 to communicatewith other communication devices 108 or processing customer processingresources 112 may depend upon the communication applications availableon the communication device 108.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the work item is sent toward a collection of customer processingresources 112 via the combined efforts of the work assignment mechanism116 and routing engine 132. The customer processing resources 112 caneither be completely automated resources (e.g., Interactive VoiceResponse (IVR) units, processors, servers, or the like), human resourcesutilizing communication devices (e.g., human agents utilizing acomputer, telephone, laptop, etc.), or any other resource known to beused in contact center 102.

As discussed above, the work assignment mechanism 116 and customerprocessing resources 112 may be owned and operated by a common entity ina contact center 102 format. In some embodiments, the work assignmentmechanism 116 may be administered by multiple enterprises, each of whichhas its own dedicated customer processing resources 112 connected to thework assignment mechanism 116.

In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 comprises a workassignment engine 120, which enables the work assignment mechanism 116to make intelligent routing decisions for work items. In someembodiments, the work assignment engine 120 is configured to administerand make work assignment decisions in a queueless contact center 102, asis described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/882,950, the entirecontents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. In otherembodiments, the work assignment engine 120 may be configured to executework assignment decisions in a traditional queue-based (or skill-based)contact center 102.

The work assignment engine 120 and its various components may reside inthe work assignment mechanism 116 or in a number of different servers orprocessing devices. In some embodiments, cloud-based computingarchitectures can be employed whereby one or more components of the workassignment mechanism 116 are made available in a cloud or network suchthat they can be shared resources among a plurality of different users.Work assignment mechanism 116 may access customer database 118, such asto retrieve records, profiles, purchase history, previous work items,and/or other aspects of a customer known to contact center 102. Customerdatabase 118 may be updated in response to a work item and/or input fromcustomer processing resource 112 processing the work item.

In one embodiment, a message is generated by customer communicationdevice 108 and received, via communication network 104, at workassignment mechanism 116. The message received by a contact center 102,such as at the work assignment mechanism 116, is generally, and herein,referred to as a “contact.” Routing engine 132 routes the contact to atleast one of customer processing resources 112 for processing.

FIG. 2 depicts diagram 200 in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 2 illustrates certain components of contact center 102,which may include components described with respect to FIG. 1,additional, or alternative components. Contact center 102 providescustomer service to customers contacting or contacted by contact center102 to provide a customer service (e.g., performing a task, providinginformation, receiving information, etc.). Contact center 102 includesresources internal to contact center 102 and/or utilized by contactcenter 102 that may directly facilitate the communication between thecontact center 102 and the customer and/or provide services for themanagement of such communications and the resources utilized for suchcommunications and other needs of contact center 102.

In one embodiment, contact center 102 is configured to conduct two typesof communications, one type via channel A 220, 224 and a second type viachannel B 222, 226. In other embodiments, contact center 102 supportsmany more communication types and/or channels. In one embodiment,communications of a first type and utilizing channel A 220, 224 utilizesmore resources than communications of a second type and utilizingchannel B 222, 226. Resources, as used herein, may be computational,communication (e.g., bandwidth), and customer processing resources(e.g., human agents, automated agents, etc.) and may also have physicallimitations (e.g., number of telephone circuits available, human agentsavailable during a shift, etc), a practical limitation as dictated byanother limitation (e.g., a customer wait time over an acceptableamount, etc.).

In another embodiment, a channel, as used herein is variously embodied.In one embodiment, the difference between two channels (e.g., channel A220 and channel B 222) is defined by the data conveyed by thecommunication, including but not limited to, audio-video, audio(telephone), audio (VoIP), text chat, email, co-browse, etc. In anotherembodiment, the channel is defined by differences in interaction time,such as a real-time conversation including audio, video, or text versusa delayed communication, such as email or voicemail.

Returning to the resources utilized by contact center 102, the resourcesmay be physically and/or logically integrated into contact center 102 orutilized by contact center 102, such as communication network 104 and/orcommunication link 208. Communications network 104 may be and/orincorporate communication link 208 and may further comprise one or moreof a public network (e.g., Internet, public switched telephone network,etc.) and/or one or more private networks (e.g., enterprisecommunications, WAN, LAN, wireless LAN, etc.). Customers utilizing theirrespective customer communication devices 108 communicate with customerprocessing resources 112. Contact center 102 incorporates a variety ofresources in order to provide service to the customers. Resources may beincentivized or allocated statically or dynamically to one or moreclients of the contact center 102. For example virtual contact center210 and virtual contact center 212 may provide their respectivecustomer's with the appearance of dedicated resources, however suchresources may be shared. For example, a customer of a clothing retailermay call a telephone number, send an email, initiate a chat, orotherwise initiate contact with contact center 102 to place an order andutilize some, most, or all resources also utilized by a customer of anairline calling to change a flight reservation. Dedicated resources 214may comprise resources that are physically, contractually, or otherwisededicated solely to one particular client, such as virtual contactcenter 212.

In order for contact center 102 to process communications betweencustomer processing resources 112 and customers utilizing customercommunication devices 108, various communication, storage, computationaland/or other resources may be implemented to manage, monitor, route,access and store data, and otherwise process the communications andprovide administrative services for contact center 102. For examplecomputational resources 202 may comprise components, such as certaincustomer processing resources 112 (e.g. interactive voice responsesystems, automated agents, etc.), as well as routing engine 132 workassignment mechanism 116 and work assignment engine 120, as well asother data processing components. Resources may also include storageresources 204, such as databases within a contact center 102 or otherdata repositories, such as social media server 130 and/or other datasources 134 (See FIG. 1). Additionally customer processing resources 112may be human agents, automated agents, or a combination thereof.Customer processing resources 112 may be differentiated by an attributeof a similar resource, such as one human agent having a higher level ofskill with respect to a certain ability (e.g., fluency with a particularlanguage, familiarity with a certain product, expertise, and using videochat, etc.) as compared with another human agent.

Communication resources 206 and/or 208 provide communicationconnectivity to and from contact center 102 as well as betweencomponents within a contact center 102 such as between computationalresources 202, customer processing resources 112, and/or storageresources 204. Communication resources 206 may be entirely within acontact center 102 or utilize partially or completely externalcommunications, such as the Internet, to provide data connectivity tophysically dispersed components.

In one embodiment, a communication with one customer communicationdevice 108 may have a preferred communication channel. Resource monitor206 monitors the unit utilization of resources within a contact center102. During times when the utilization is below a predeterminedthreshold, contact center 102 may allow customer communication device108 to utilize the preferred communication channel selected by customercommunication device 108. Additionally a client associated with aparticular customer utilizing customer communication device 108 maydetermine the preferred communication channel. For example, a high-endretailer may contractually obligate contact center 102 to provide itscustomers with a certain communication channel exclusively or within anacceptable variation, such as no more than 10% of requests for videocommunications with a human agent may be downgraded to an audio-onlychannel with a human agent and no more than 1% may be downgraded to acall-back channel. In contrast, another retailer may require lessresource intensive services of contact center 102 and thereby permit theuse of lower demand communication channels, such as email, text chat,and automated agents. In another embodiment, specific customers (e.g.,“gold,” “platinum,” customers asking about a luxury automobile, etc.)may be immune to downgrading or downgraded before other customers (e.g.,“silver,” customers asking about an entry-level automobile, etc.).

Contact center 102 may face uneven demand for services. For example,contact center 102, may provide an airline with human and automatedreservation agents. A spike in demand may be triggered, or anticipated,by a snowstorm and a number of flight cancellations and delays. contactcenter 102 may reduce the utilization of resources by downgradingcommunications from a higher demand channel to a lower demand channel.For example, video-chat customers may be downgraded to audio-only chatwhen bandwidth is, or is predicted, to be over a predeterminedthreshold. If customer processing resources 112 are, or are predicted,to be over utilized, a live agent channel may be downgraded to anautomated agent channel and/or live interactions may be downgraded to acall-back channel. In another embodiment, the downgrading may occur fora different customer. For example, virtual contact center 210 may havecustomer processing resources 112 (e.g., human agents) overwhelmed bycustomers calling to reschedule flights. In response, virtual contactcenter 212 may have communications downgraded to utilize more automatedagents and/or non-real-time interactions with human agents. In anotherexample, contact center 102 may learn of flight delays and virtualcontact center 210 may be a hotelier. Virtual contact center may upgradecommunications to a live agent from automated agents, ones of thecustomer processing resources 112, in order to notify guests that theymay want to alter their travel plans due to the flight delays.

In another embodiment, resource monitor 216 provides reactive and/orproactive inputs to channel selector 218. Resource monitor 216 may be astandalone computer or server or a process or processor running on ashared electronic component of contact center 102 (e.g., routing engine132). Resource monitor 216 may receive utilization for one or moreresources of contact center 102 (e.g., communication links 206,computational resources 202, storage resources 204, etc.) and/orexternal components (e.g., communications network 104). Additionally,resource monitor 216 may receive external data from sources, not shown(e.g., social media, service provider, etc.), such as to receive weatheralerts that may be associated with an increase in demand for customerprocessing resources 112 associated with rebooking delayed and cancelledflights and cause resource monitor 216 to proactively signal channelselector 218.

Channel selector 218 routes communication to one of at least twocommunication channels for one or more clients or virtual contactcenters (e.g., virtual contact center 210, 212). For example,communications with customer processing resources 112 for virtualcontact center 210 may be provided by channel A 220, when demand is ator below normal and channel B 222 when a resource demand is above athreshold amount. Similarly, communications with customer processingresources 112 of virtual contact center 212 may be provided by channel A224 and, if demand on a resource is above a threshold, channel B 226.

FIG. 3 depicts process 300 in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In one embodiment, step 302 monitors a resource'sutilization. The resource monitored may be any aspect of a contactcenter or impacting a contact center (e.g., Internet operations,telephone system outage, etc.). Step 304 determines if the resource isoverutilized. Overutilization may be determined by direct measurement,such as a key performance indicator (KPI), idle time of a server, linesof communication utilized, etc. In another embodiment, overutilizationmay be determined by indirect measurement (e.g., customers complainingof garbled speech on a call, response times of system components beingoutside of normal parameters, etc.). If step 304 is determined in thenegative, processing continues to step 306 otherwise processing may loopback to step 302, whereby monitoring by step 302 may be ongoing. If step304 is determined in the positive, processing continues to step 306 ifimplemented or, if not, to step 308.

Step 306 optionally identifies a client of the contact center to be thesubject of reprioritization. For example, contact center 102 has threeclients. One client has terms that forbid channel reprioritization, asecond client is causing a spike in voice-channel utilization, and athird client is operating normally but does not have terms that forbidchannel reprioritization. Step 306 may then select the second and/orthird client for channel reprioritization. Step 308 then executes thereprioritization of the channel that has been determined to reduce theutilization of the resource determined in step 302.

FIG. 4 depicts process 400 in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In one embodiment, resource monitor 402 monitors at leastone of a number of resources (e.g., communication, agent or customerprocessing resources, and data storage resources). It should beappreciated that other resources may be monitored as well as specifictypes of resources (e.g., French speaking agent utilization, access tohistoric data storage, bandwidth for high-definition video, etc.). Inone embodiment, resource monitor 402 monitors communication and/orconnectivity resources 404, agent resources 406, and data storageresources 408. In other embodiments other resources and/or resourcetypes are monitored.

In a first embodiment, block 404 of resource monitor 402 monitorsbandwidth, communications, and/or connectivity resources. Block 404 maycomprise internal networks, components, systems, endpoints, etc. and/orexternal systems and components (e.g., internet, telephone network,etc.). For example, an Internet service provider (ISP) providingcommunication services may experience a partial or total outage wherebycommunication via telephone networks (e.g., PSTN) is the only or primarymeans of communication between a customer and a contact center. Block404 indicates a communication resource is overutilized. Overutilizationmay be relative based on a current state. In another embodiment,overutilization is an availability or capacity. An outage of a componentor system is an overutilization when such components or systems arelikely interfering with normal operations. For example, a completeoutage of PSTN connectivity would be an overutilization, for resourcemonitoring purposes, even if the PSTN was currently unable to handle asingle call. Accordingly, block 410 may prioritize low bandwidthchannels to reduce the bandwidth, communication, and/or connectivityutilization of block 404. For example, call-back channels may beprioritized above live agent communications, text communications may beprioritized above voice or video, etc.

Prioritization is variously embodied. In one embodiment, the menuoptions of a interactive voice response (IVR) is provided with dynamicupdates to cause customers of the contact center to be presented, ormore prominently presented, with low-bandwidth options. For example, a“speak to an agent” option may be omitted, placed lower in a menu ofother options, or associated with a discouraging message (e.g., “Press 1to leave a message and your call will be returned in approximatelythirty minutes. Press 2 to speak to a live agent. Your hold time will beapproximately forty minutes . . . ”). Clients of contact center 102 maybe provided with financial or other incentives to accommodate thereallocation of communications to address the resource overutilization.As a further option, block 416 may de-prioritize high bandwidth channelcommunications, such as by throttling video and/or audio communications(e.g., lower frame rate, lower sampling rate, etc.).

In a second embodiment, block 406 monitors agent resources. Agentresources monitored by block 406 are variously embodied and may includeavailability of all agents or a subset of agents. For example, demand onFrench speaking agents may spike. However, additional agents may beavailable who are sufficiently fluent, perhaps with access totranslation resources, to communicate via written French. Block 412prioritizes low interaction channel communications. For example,text-based communication channels, message and call-back channels,automated agents, etc. may be prioritized. Optionally, block 418 mayde-prioritize high interaction channel. Such as by allocating agents whodo speak French to text-based communications, particularly if an agenthas faster call completion via text than with spoken. Block 412 may thenincentivizes customers of contact center 102 to utilize low-interactionchannels (e.g., faster response by leaving a message, etc.) Block 418may optionally de-prioritize high interaction channels (e.g., “To speakto a live agent, please call back after . . . ”, “Your hold time isapproximately, one hour . . . ,” etc.).

In a third embodiment, block 408 monitors data storage resources. Asmost computer systems employ fast and ample storage systems,storage-based limitations may be rarely encountered. However, certainstorage-based limitations may be common. For example, a passenger on anairline may need to find a receipt for a flight taken years ago. Suchrecords may be offline and require a more extensive retrieval process.Additionally, some data storage may be offline due to ongoing backupoperations, new equipment installation, or outages. Accordingly, block414 may prioritize low data storage and/or retrieval channels and/orblock 420 may de-prioritize channels with high data storage and/orretrieval. This may comprise communication channel basedprioritizations, such as when a call-back at a later time may coincidewith better availability of data, versus a live conversation that mustwait for such availability to return.

FIG. 5 depicts process 500 in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In one embodiment, step 502 monitors a resource (e.g., freebandwidth, lines in use, lines available, agent queues, and/or otherKPIs, data retrieval/storage times, etc.). Next, step 506 determines ifa first agent sub-pool is overutilized. For example, agents skilled in aparticular language have certain expertise with a product, are qualifiedto communicate utilizing a particular medium (e.g., video, voice, text,etc.), or are part of another agent subset. If yes, processing maycontinue to optional step 510 or step 514 as a matter of design choice.

In another embodiment, step 504 receives an external event notification.Step 504 may be for one particular client (e.g., a snowstorm at a clientairline's hub city) or more universal (e.g., a backhoe just cut a majorfiber optic line). Step 504 may be more predictive of a futureoverutilization, including outages, as opposed to a measurement of thecurrent state of a resource, such as provided by step 502. Next, step508 determines if a first agent sub-pool is likely to becomeoverutilized. For example, a plane operated by a client airline just hada flight from New York to Barcelona cancelled. Step 508 may determinethat Spanish-speaking agents will become overutilized as many passengerson the flight will require rebooking services by Spanish-speakingagents. If step 508 is determined in the affirmative, processingcontinues to optional step 510 or step 514 as a matter of design choice.

Step 510 may optionally be executed to perform precursor events prior toreallocation of communications to a particular channel. For example,Spanish speaking agents may be allocated to Spanish text-basedcommunications in order to clear the text-based work queue that is, oris likely, to become a prioritized channel as opposed to a voice-basedchannel. Step 510, in another example, may incentivize and/or allocate anumber of communications to more marginally skilled Spanish speakingagents for later assignment to text-based channels. As a more specificoption, step 512 may temporarily allocate agents to a firstcommunications channel. For example, prior to communications beingprioritized to a second communications channel, the communications on afirst communications channel may be more rapidly completed, such as whenthe first communications channel is to be completely terminated and/orto make it available for premium-rate communications.

Step 514 then incentivizes and/or allocates communications to a secondcommunications channel. For example, agents skilled in text-basedSpanish may now receive communications that may otherwise require a moreskilled speech-based Spanish language agent. Step 516 then routes thecommunication to the second communications channel and the agentsallocated thereto.

FIG. 6 depicts process 600 in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Process 600 begins with the monitoring of a resource, suchas resource monitor 216 monitoring one or more components of contactcenter 102 and/or resources utilized by contact center 102 (e.g.,communications network 104, communications link 208, etc.). Step 604determines if the utilization is over a previously determined threshold.

In one embodiment, the resource monitored is a pool of human agents,each a customer processing resource 112. Step 604 may determineutilization is over a threshold if the wait time to speak and/or see ahuman agent is over an acceptable amount, such as a contractualthreshold. In another embodiment, the resource is a communicationbandwidth, such as communication links 206, 208. Step 604 may determinethe utilization is over a threshold when dropped packets make videoand/or VoIP communication unacceptable to the customer or a human agentor both.

Next, step 606 selects communications to incentivize and/or reallocate.Step 606 may cause audio-video to become audio only, audio-only tobecome text chat, text chat to become email, or other combinationwhereby the resource monitored in step 602 may have the utilizationdemanded thereof reduced. Optionally, step 608 may determine one or morecustomers to be subject to the reallocation. Step 608 may cause thecustomer, whose communications are causing or more substantiallycontributing to the utilization over the threshold amount, to beincentivized and/or reallocated. Optionally, step 608 may select anothercustomer to be subject to the communication reallocations. Step 610performs the reallocation and process 600 may continue back to step 602and/or initiate a return to normal allocation (See FIG. 7). Optionally,step 612, such as when executed by resource monitor 216, may identify apredicted utilization over threshold, such as in the example above wherea weather service alerts contact center 102 of a snow storm that islikely to cause flight delays and cancelations impacting resources ofcontact center 102.

In another embodiment, a client of contact center 102 may beincentivized to have their communications reallocated. For example,contact center 102 may provide a lower fee for clients who permit theircommunications to be downgraded. Alternatively, clients who wish to bean exception to a potential downgrading may be charged a premium toutilize non-downgraded communication channels. A client of contactcenter 102 may, for example, respond to an incentive by dynamicallyremoving a “push to chat with an agent” button on their website. Thebutton may be removed or changed to a “push to text with an agent” or“push to leave a message” or otherwise require customers to use a lessresource-demanding channel of communication.

FIG. 7 depicts process 700 in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Process 700 starts at step 702 monitoring a shared resource,such as by resource monitor 216. Optionally, step 702 may be step 602 ofprocess 600. Next, step 704 determines if a monitored resource is undera threshold amount. For example, a particular resource may be overutilized when used at 95% capacity and above and underutilized when at85% capacity and below. If step 704 determines a resource isunderutilized, then the resource may have additional demands routedthereto and processing continues to step 706, otherwise processing mayreturn to step 702.

Step 706 determines if communications are currently being reallocated,such as step 604 being determined in the affirmative. If no, processingmay return to step 702 and demand for the resources of contact center102 is below threshold and may optionally be managed by other means.However, if step 706 is answered in the affirmative, processingcontinues to step 708 wherein communications to release, that is,communications that have been downgraded to reduce the demand on aresource, may now be returned to their previous state or a state of alesser downgrade. Step 710 optionally selects one or more clients to besubject to the release of the communications channel. Step 712 is thenexecuted, such as when resource monitor 216 signals channel selector 218to return communications to channel A 220 when previously allocated tochannel B 222.

In the foregoing description, for the purposes of illustration, methodswere described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that inalternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different orderthan that described. It should also be appreciated that the methodsdescribed above may be performed by hardware components or may beembodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions, which may beused to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purposeprocessor (GPU or CPU), or logic circuits programmed with theinstructions to perform the methods (FPGA). These machine-executableinstructions may be stored on one or more machine-readable mediums, suchas CD-ROMs or other types of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs,RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or othertypes of machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronicinstructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by acombination of hardware and software.

Specific details were given in the description to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practicedwithout these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown inblock diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessarydetail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms,structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail inorder to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

Also, it is noted that the embodiments were described as a process,which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, astructure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describethe operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can beperformed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of theoperations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when itsoperations are completed, but could have additional steps not includedin the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, aprocedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process correspondsto a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the functionto the calling function or the main function.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software,firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or anycombination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middlewareor microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessarytasks may be stored in a machine-readable medium, such as a storagemedium. A processor(s) may perform the necessary tasks. A code segmentmay represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, aroutine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or anycombination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. Acode segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardwarecircuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments,parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters,data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitablemeans including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, networktransmission, etc.

While illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have been described indetail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may beotherwise variously embodied and employed, and that the appended claimsare intended to be construed to include such variations, except aslimited by the prior art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a set of resources utilizedin providing a service to a customer of the contact center duringelectronic communications between the customers and agents of thecontact center and the set of resources having a monitored resource; afirst communications channel utilizing a first subset of the resourcescomprising at least the monitored resource; a second communicationchannel utilizing a second subset of the resources; a resource managerconfigured to monitor utilization of the monitored resource and upondetermining the utilization of the monitored resource has reached apreviously determined threshold, incentivize a portion of the electroniccommunications to utilize the second communications channel.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the previously determined threshold isadjusted based upon the resource manager receiving indicia of historicalevents known to impact the demand on the monitored resource for at leastone set of customers associated with at least one client of the contactcenter.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first communicationschannel and the second communications channel comprise a portion of theresources to facilitate communication on one of audio-video, audio, textchat, email, real-time communications, and non real-time communication.4. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitored resource comprises humanagents.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitored resourcecomprises human agents having a particular skill.
 6. The system of claim1, wherein the monitored resource comprises a communication resourceproviding communication connectivity between the customers and theagents of the contact center.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein theresource manager is further configured to omit incentivization of theportion of electronic communications to utilize the secondcommunications channel upon determining the monitored resource has notreached the previously determined threshold.
 8. The system of claim 1,wherein: the resource manager incentivizes the portion of the electroniccommunications to utilize the second communication channel forcommunications associated with customers of a first client of thecontact center and not for a second client of a contact center.
 9. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the monitored resource comprise is utilizedto a greater degree by the customers of the second client of the contactcenter.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource manager isfurther configured to incentivize utilization of the secondcommunication channel comprising disabling the first communicationschannel for the portion of the electronic communications.
 11. A method,comprising: monitoring utilization of a monitored resource of a set ofresources of a contact center, the monitored resource being one resourceof a set of resources utilized in providing a service to customers ofthe contact center during electronic communications between thecustomers and agents of the contact center; determining the monitoredresource is overutilized; in response to the determination,incentivizing a portion of the electronic communications to utilize asecond communications channel having a lesser demand on the monitoredresource than a first communication channel.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein: the customers of the contact center are associated with one ofa first client and the second client; and wherein the step ofincentivizing further comprising incentivizing customer associated witha first client of the contact center to utilize the secondcommunications channel.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein, the step ofincentivizing further comprising incentivizing customers associated withboth the first client and the customers associated with the secondclient to utilize the second communications channel.
 14. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the step of incentivization is provided to a firstclient of the contact center to incentivize the first client to havecustomers associated with the first client utilize the secondcommunications channel.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein the firstcommunications channel utilizes the resources comprising human agentsand the second communications channel comprises the resources comprisingautomated agents.
 16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium withinstructions thereon that when read by the computer cause the computerto perform: monitoring utilization of a monitored resource of a set ofresources of a contact center, the monitored resource being one resourceof a set of resources utilized in providing a service to customers ofthe contact center during electronic communications between thecustomers and agents of the contact center; determining the monitoredresource is overutilized; in response to the determination,incentivizing a portion of the electronic communications to utilize asecond communications channel having a lesser demand on the monitoredresource than a first communication channel.
 17. The non-transitorymedium of claim 16, wherein: the customers of the contact center areassociated with one of a first client and the second client; and whereinthe step of incentivizing further comprising incentivizing customerassociated with a first client of the contact center to utilize thesecond communications channel.
 18. The non-transitory medium of claim17, wherein the instructions for incentivizing further compriseinstructions for incentivizing customers associated with both the firstclient and the customers associated with the second client to utilizethe second communications channel.
 19. The non-transitory medium ofclaim 18, wherein the instructions for incentivization further compriseinstructions to provide incentives to a first client of the contactcenter to incentivize the first client to have customers associated withthe first client utilize the second communications channel.
 20. Thenon-transitory medium of claim 16, wherein the first communicationschannel utilizes the resources comprising human agents and the secondcommunications channel comprises the resources comprising automatedagents.